The Daily Telegraph. THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 1881.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3069, 28 April 1881, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 1881.

It is time to refer once more to the Meanee reserve. When it was announced that tbe trustees had applied to the Government to give them certain powers by which money could be procured for the improvement of the ground, and to give the Mayor a seat on the Board, the public consented to reraain silent in the belief that there was an honest intention to do the beat that was possible with the land. But as the reserve and its management remain exactly in the same position as before, it is time once more to call attention to the subject. Under the peculiar circumstances of the case it would be most injudicious to remain silent. If nothing more were said in connection with this matter, the trustees in Napier, and the Government at Wellington, would be confirmed in the impression that the late agitation was but an ebullition of temper that would pass in time to indifference or contentment. We do not forget, however, that a petition to the Government was forwarded to Wellington praying that the reserve might be granted to the Municipality, and that this petition was signed by close upon one thousand electors. The reply to tbe petition was a moat unsatisfactory ' one, and nothing more has been heard of the matter, furtbor than that the subject [ had been referred to the Department of the Commissioner of Crown Lands. , We are certain that, however satisfied the Government may be

with the disposition of the reserve, the people of this town and surrounding districts will not be contented to allow ninety acres of valuable lanrt to be locked up as a permanent wilderness. Tbey would be better pleased to have it sold that it might be turned into some useful account than to see it lying idle, in a condition disgraceful to a country that has none too much good land. It would indeed be much better that it should be sold, and its reservation removed than that it should continue in its present state. Aa a reserve it is absolutely useless for purposes of public recreation ; for years past it has not been used for any such purpose, nor is it in the least likely to be in tbe future under its existing management, crippled a 9 it is with all sorts of restrictions. That which renders the position of the reserve all the more absurd is that, while a stroke of the pen would furnish the means to convert the land into a valuable park for the people nothing is done co render it of the slightest benefit to anyone. If to keep it as it is it could be shown that something or someone was deriving an advantage there would be less complaint to make. But no such thing can be shown. On tbe contrary the land is lying waste a nursery tor the growth pt all sorts of weeds, tbe seeds or which spread themselves over the adjoining, paddocks. At one time, to allay agitation, it was asserted that it would require an Act of Parliament to alter tbe purposes of a reserve, and with the certain opposition of Mr button, Captain Russell, Mr Ormond, and their friends, to any bill that might propose to deal with tbe Meanee reserve, it was of no avail to cry for what could not be had. Readers of the New Zealand Gazette, however, are well enough aware that hardly an issue of tbe Gazette is published without a proclamation appearing altering the purposes of reserves; taking them from one body and giving tbem to another, and in fact dealing with them in jii9t such manner as may be suggested to Ministers by influential persons interested in them and thei. utility. Whatever influence Mr Sutton or Captain Russell may have over Ministers in respect to local affairs, it has been well ascertained that the Government pay attentiou to what Mr Ormond suggests for the benefit of this district. Now it is impossible for it to appear to Mr Ormond that it geous tbat ninety acres of land should remain in an unproductive condition, and, therefore, there must be sometbiug underlying the question that induces him to keep silence. Are we to suppose that that "something" iB the fear that a park at Meanee would injure Hastings as a place of holiday resort? Mr Ormond, however, is not ; the : representative of Napier; and is consequently hardly'the proper; member to appeal to in this matter. At next elections we' shall probably have some promises made on the subject which the electors will knovr exactly how to value.